A Two-Edged Sword

Chiseled, as a concept, is a two-edged sword. One can be chiseled out of something, or one can be chiseled into something. Everyone is chiseled on both counts by life. Life is not fair. It cheats you out of your rightful place, what you deserve and what you're due. But life also chisels you into the person you become.

We are all on our chiseling paths, learning, growing, carving out our ethical and moral visions of who we are. A bully one day learns he cannot punch his way through life, that it is better to be kind. that it is not longer better to denigrate but to uphold, to support rather than humiliate. And the one who is bullied becomes chiseled by a bloody nose or two and learns to stand tall and to fight for what is right, and in the process may learn compassion for his aggressor. You can't learn what life teaches you from a book--not even mine. We learn compasion, humility, empathy and kindness through an internal combustion of self-evaluations, experiences and reflections. It takes a few poundings by the mallet, and scrapes of a hard chisel or two to be carved into who we eventually become.